For years I’ve been using Billable to track my time and create invoices. It’s simple, I’ll give it that. The application is focused only on tasks, clients & invoices. Unfortunately Billable’s time-tracker is stuck inside the application. It’s too often that I’ve forgotten to turn it off (or on) when switching between tasks. I realize that’s probably more my own fault than Billable’s, but without that timer out in the open, it might as well not exist. It’s a decent median application that gets the job done. It’s just not quite what I’m looking for.
Lately I’ve been using The Hit List to track tasks. Everything from household items to professional deadlines. I’m a big fan of keeping only one to do list.
I really think The Hit List could be great for my time tracking workflow except for one significant limitation — there’s currently no way to input time manually. If you forgot to set the timer when you started you’re out of luck.
Granted The Hit List is in beta still (until November? ugh) so this could just be something overlooked. Afterall you can click in the ‘actual time’ field and edit the numbers therein. They just don’t stick.
I know that other applications — Billings, for example — work for other people. Most have too many features, or subscription plans that I don’t want any part of. Everything I’ve tried feels like too much or too little. I don’t need to keep track of every single detail. But I do need to track individual items, and group them accordingly.
I guess I’ll stick it out with Billable for now. But in such a crowded market, I’m surprised there aren’t more median products to choose from.
As Apple throws all caution to the wind by skipping two full versions between iterations 7 and 10, I can’t help but wonder what QuickTime X — and Snow Leopard — means for the future of Final Cut Studio.
For now the only information I can find is the bit about ColorSync that was mentioned in the WWDC Keynote on Monday, and the small section under Snow Leopard’s New Technologies heading. ColorSync is Apple’s system for maintaining consistency across imaging devices like displays, printers, scanners, and digital cameras so that the color viewed on screen is the same as the color printed out.
Maybe this means an end to those tricky gamma-shift issues that occurred when exporting to specific formats in Compressor.
Snow Leopard is due out in September, so it would be great to hear something about Final Cut Studio around then, but I won’t get my hopes up. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it’s April before we hear any mention of Final Cut Studio 3. But holy cow, that would have to be some upgrade, right? It will have been three years since the last major release, and I expect the Final Cut team have been keeping themselves busy since 2007 — especially with all those new Snow Leopard goodies like Grand Central Dispatch to play with.
I haven’t been this excited about a LEGO set since I was 10 or so, when all I could wrap my head around was acquiring an Aquazone submarine.
According to LEGO’s website the sets aren’t out yet, but the Chicago Architecture Foundation has been selling the Sears Tower, Empire State Building and Space Needle sets at $22.00 a piece.
I’ve also read that there’s a John Hancock Tower model out (or coming out), and a whole line of Frank Llyod Wright buildings, though LEGO doesn’t have any official information on any of it. Lame.
Apparently you can buy some of the sets here though.
I’m not really a fan of swapping z’s for s’s — or crappy web design — but golly if these guys didn’t nail their product demo video. So awesome.
I tried building a track-based dolly system on my own a little over a year ago. It didn’t look nearly this good and, more importantly, only the dolly itself is currently usable. The track, not so much.
They’re asking between $500-$600 for the set and, considering my GlideCam jib cost about $500, I think it’s a bargain for something so versatile.
If I had $500 to spend on gear, I’d seriously consider giving it to these guys.
